The sportscaster on what pushed her career into overdrive, tuning out the chatter, and why she thinks women are more subject to scrutiny.

Working women get all sorts of advice. Lean in, lean out, ask for a raise, but don't ask in the wrong way, be aggressive, but not too aggressive. We're also told to make sure not to forget about our personal lives, lest we end up foregoing families or love or travel or friendship in service of our careers. It's confusing and maddening, and we're all still struggling to figure it out. This Woman's Work is an ongoing series meant to highlight how women in different industries are living their lives. We hope to show that there's no one "right" way to succeed. There are so many ways, and so many different experiences. Today we're talking to Erin Andrews, sportscaster, journalist, and host of Dancing with the Stars.

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Describe your career trajectory. How did you get to where you are? What did your twenties look like?

I grew up a daddy's girl—my dad loved sports, and I used to sit on the couch with him and learn about his favorite teams. My dad is a great storyteller—he's on television; he's an investigative reporter in Tampa for an NBC affiliate. I loved the stories behind the players, coaches, the games, the traditions, and I liked spending time with my dad and learning about his favorite teams. I started as a sports fan. I never played sports. I was always a spectator, but it was something I really loved doing. Then, I became a fan of the sports broadcasters—[including the] women who would tell the stories. [I loved] how they did it, and their rapport with the players and and how the players would treat them. I decided I wanted to go to school for it, went to school for it, and…obviously, right place, right time. Things blew up very quickly for me. I worked my very first job out of college as a reporter for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and I worked there for a year. Turner Sports found me, they hired me for two years, and then I went to ESPN.

I had a great eight years with them and covered everything from college football to college basketball to major league baseball, the ESPYs—really everything that they had to offer. I developed a lot of relationships and really worked 24/7. I never had time for myself. I couldn't take vacations or anything like that because I'm really competitive. I felt that if I worked all year round doing all the different sports, it would be harder to replace me and I would just get better as a reporter. Three years ago, I decided it was time for a change, and I really wanted to try the NFL, so I left ESPN, which was a very difficult decision—but I'm so happy with it. Now I'm with Fox, and I'm working the biggest events in all of sports. It's been an incredible ride.

You mentioned you looked up to female sportscasters. Who were some of the people you admired?

I think one of the people I've always looked up to is Melissa Stark. She's on the NFL Network now. Once I really became passionate and knew I wanted to go to school for [broadcasting], Melissa was the one that I concentrated on; I focused on how she did things. Monday Night Football—she was young, she was good looking, and you could tell the players really respected her. I've heard through producers I work with now that John Madden really liked her [when they worked together]. The first time I ever met her, I told her she was "my Michael Jordan" of the industry—she even left the industry for a while to go start a family, and now she's back. I really love the way she handles herself.

When you were first getting started, what were some of the biggest challenges that you faced?

I looked a certain way. I'm 5'10", I've got blonde hair, you know? I like dressing nicely. I'm also a huge tomboy, and dealing with guys and talking to guys is not hard for me. So I felt like I got a lot of attention because of that—I was new, I was different. People want to know if you're for real. They want to know if you're only there for your looks, or if you're there because you know the game. The other challenge for me was that when I started, that's when the Internet really blew up. People started these sports blogs and websites—there were pictures when I was eating a sandwich on the field, or [they would] take pictures of me and what I was wearing. There really wasn't a sports broadcaster who had to deal with that yet, and while I think it helped my popularity in the industry, I've dealt with some hard things with that.

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How did you come to cope with that? I'm sure you're still dealing with many of those same things?

I am dealing with those same things, and I don't know if I'll ever deal with it. I mean, the way social media is now, and people are with cameras—we all live different lives whether you're in the spotlight or not. I mean, you can't be a boss or an executive of a big time company and act a fool, because there are cameras everywhere and people are going to document it and take pictures. I'm not used to stuff like that. My life has definitely changed. I think I'm a little bit more guarded.

Have you ever taken a big risk in your career? How did you go about it?

I think one of the biggest risks I ever took was when I was with the Tampa Bay Lightning. I was living with my mom and dad; I was in a comfort zone. I was learning about a sport [hockey] I had no idea about, and then I got a job offer to go work for a network, which was Turner Sports. I had to leave my mom and dad, go live on my own and work in a studio and work in Major League Baseball, and I didn't know anything about any of it. I ended up taking the job. It was a really hard thing, and I'd go and visit my parents all the time—I'd start bawling to them and tell them it was the worst mistake of my life. But it was [ultimately] the best thing for me because I received a ton of criticism. I wasn't very good at my job, and I had to learn whether to sink or swim. I wasn't good on TV, but it kind of made me a fighter, and made me develop this really competitive fire within me that still helps me navigate my way through things now. Yeah, it was a tough two years. I definitely wasn't ready to take the job. I wasn't ready to be on national TV. But I had to figure out how to tread water.

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Your work is obviously a little bit unpredictable, but what does a typical day look like for you?

Well, it's probably better to break it down in weeks. During football season, I carry two jobs: I do the sidelines, and then I host Dancing with the Stars, so it's kind of crazy. I leave town to go to my football game on Thursday, so I'll fly across the country and go wherever we're going for the game. Friday morning, I'll wake up early, I'll go shoot a sit-down interview with one of the players, and then I'll go to practice and will sit in three to four hour meetings with the team. On Saturday, we meet a lot as a group and we'll also talk to the other team that we're covering that Sunday, and we'll go out to dinner as a crew. When we wake up on Sunday morning, we leave the hotel usually by 8:30 A.M.; then we're at the game, and then I get on a plane, fly back to LA, and usually land around midnight. Then I have to be on the road by 8 A.M. to get to the Dancing with the Stars studio. I'm in dress rehearsal and hair and makeup all day, we shoot at 5 P.M., and I'm out of there by 7:30 P.M. or 8 P.M. on Monday night. If my boyfriend [NHL player Jarret Stoll] isn't playing a game, I re-introduce myself to him. [Laughs] Tuesday and Wednesday are my days off—to just get ready to leave again on Thursday.

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You touched on this before, but you of course work in a very male-centric business. Do you feel that you're often treated differently than your male co-workers?

Not within my job, not within Fox. Fox doesn't treat me any differently, and that's one thing I'm very lucky with—my network treats me like a woman, but they never make me feel like I don't fit in or anything like that, which is great. But within the industry, yeah. It's a double standard, but it's something that you have to deal with or try to make better; [turn into] a positive...We have really, really good-looking men who work for our network, and that's never brought into question. Our men dress very well, and look fantastic in a suit, and not once is that ever talked about. I can be called out on the Internet or in newspapers for asking a question, but if a male asked [the same question], it would never be a topic.

How do you take care of yourself when you're not working?

I try to be around my friends and family because I don't get to spend a lot of time with them during the football season. It's job, job, job, all the time. I really try to make sure I work out. Whether I'm on the road or off the road it's really important for me mentally and physically. Physically, when I'm on the road, I work with men that love to eat—I work with former athletes, with men who love to indulge on the road, so I eat like a guy. I have four appetizers, I try their entrees, I eat mine, I like dessert. So I have to make sure that physically, I try to stay in shape. I'm always doing some sort of a workout, and then mentally it just helps a lot with the stress. It's a good hour to just block out all the negativity and all the naysayers and what's on Twitter and what's on Instagram, so I really try to make a point of doing that.

What do you usually do to work out?

I like to try different classes. Especially if I'm home, I go to barre classes, I go to Pilates, I go to yoga. One thing I tried to do this season in the NFL towns was get on Yelp and see what's around in terms of classes.

What advice do you have for someone who'd like your job someday?

It's pretty easy: have a thick skin and study, study, study. I study harder now than I ever did in college or high school. There's just so much pressure to know what's going on, and I feel like, especially with social media, there's always new information coming out on the teams, the players, the coaches, and the games. You can never be fully read enough, and I'm just constantly reading articles, watching games, and trying to read blogs. So, I think the biggest thing to do—especially if you're a woman trying to succeed in a male-dominated industry—is to just study as much you can and get ready for negativity, backlash, and comments. There's going to be a ton of it.